"No," I say immediately, a little sharper than the situation warrants. "Not yet."
My dad laughs. "He's got a mullet."
I don't say anything. It's possible that my son has the beginnings of a mullet, but I don't care. Rob and my brother Sean both had mullets at one point, and they turned out (almost) perfectly normal. Besides, Westley is only 16 months old. I think you have to be at least 2 before anything your hair and anything it does can be slapped with a style name.
Business in the front, party in the back.I'm planning to put off Westley's first haircut as long as I can. I'm thinking I'll break out the scissors when his hair starts falling in his eyes. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm the only one who thinks this is a good idea. My father thinks it's high time for a mulletectomy, and every time my mother has Westley on her lap, she starts fiddling with his fringe, saying, "You could put it in a little ponytail." Rob winces a little when I mention the hair, and says it looks "kinda silly."
"But he's a baby," I protest.
"Yeah, and your aesthetics are different than mine. You think because he's a baby it looks good, and I think it looks silly."
"I don't think it looks good, necessarily," because I don't. I think it looks a little haphazard and uneven, but that's not the point. "It's just that...he's a baby."
Rob thinks I'm being ridiculous (which I kind of am) for being attached to Westley's crazy-looking baby hair. I don't even know why I'm attached to it, except that I've always had long hair myself so not getting a haircut seems kind of normal to me. And I really, really like long hair on little boys. But Westley doesn't have cute little-boy-with-long-hair hair yet. So what difference would a trim in the back make?
For reasons I can't explain, it just seems wrong to cut it. Maybe it's because it took Westley so long to have any hair at all. Cutting it now would be...insulting to those hair follicles that worked so hard. Or maybe it's as simple as me not wanting to give up another part of the baby. Westley looks so much more grown up every day--more and more like a little boy with each passing minute, it seems. As much as I love having a walking, talking dude to share the world with, I miss the little baby who needed to be swaddled all the time, who consistently fell asleep while strapped to Rob's chest by the baby carrier, and on whose sweet, bald head I accidentally dripped chocolate on his first Valentine's Day.
Westley, 4 weeks old, totally bald. I don't think he even has any eyebrow hair here.
Oh, God. I'm going to cry like a total girl when Westley's baby fringe is gone, aren't I? I'm going to save it in a little baggy, taped in the back of the baby book (if there were a baby book). What the hell is wrong with me? I mean, it's just hair.
And, for now, it's still attached to my son. Rob says he gets that I'm sentimentally attached to it, but I can tell he would really prefer it be trimmed sooner rather than later. He says, "When it's all smoothed down in the back, it looks fine. But when he wakes up and he looks like Doc Brown, I think, eh."
"What's wrong with Doc Brown?"
...and they lived long-hairedly ever after.
I still don't think Westley's hair is too long in the back, but I'm also willing to admit that my judgment may be clouded by my increasing attachment to his "baby-ness." I'm almost tempted to trim his hair myself first thing tomorrow and get the whole thing out of the way so I can move on with my life as mom to a big, grown-up toddler boy. It would be nice not to have to hear about Westley's "mullet" any more. On the other hand...awww, my little baaaay-beeee...
What do you think, oh fine people of the Internet? Does Westley need a haircut? How long did you wait for your child's first haircut? Am I making a big deal out of nothing?
(Please say no.)
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